The Lord of the flies written by William Golding and Inferno by Dante Alighieri are allegorical books that expound common themes and similitude in the usage of styles. In particular, the common theme that resonates in these two books is the nature of man and the evil that men harbor in their hearts. In essence, the two novels delve to answer the question as to who is the real enemy of humankind. Though the two authors dexterously use different stylistic devices to answer the question, the convergence is that man himself is the worst enemy to each other. According to Dante, the increasing population pressure and depletion of resources are forcing humans to quickly turn into cruelty and may even endanger him to go into extinction. However, the Golding takes a different opinion regarding the cause of man’s growing evil character. For these reasons, this essay shall analyze the comparisons and contrasts between Dante’s Inferno and Golding’s Lord of the Flies with a bias on the themes and stylistic devices.
The second comparison is that the two authors use biblical arguments to justify the evil nature of man and the wrath of God. Golding uses an oversimplified version of the Christian imagery in contributing to his thematic resonance. For instance, in my point of view, the Island and Simon’s forest glade has a close connection with the biblical Garden of Eden. In the sense that the original Garden of Eden was pristine and pure but the corruption of the woman by the devil introduced sin into the hitherto pure garden just like the Island (Golding 151). In a similar manner, the appearance of the devil breeds evil among men. Besides, Simon is a motif used to represent Jesus because he is the character who epitomizes the moral truth of the book and eventually is murdered by others boys for unearthing the truth. Further, Simon’s confrontation with the Lord of Flies mirrors that of Jesus and the devil in the wilderness as the story is told in the Gospel. In comparison, Dante’s Inferno must be read in the context of strong Christian values. In particular, the moral value ingrained in the novel promotes the view that man should not prioritize happiness and harmony here on earth rather he/she should invest his mind and spirit in the things of heaven. In the descriptions in the 6th and 8th hell, Dante portrays imagery that violence is the lesser evil in relation to fraud. However, this portrayal negates God’s measure of evil because violence sins against the law of love while frauds counts to perversion to love (Dante 318). Nonetheless, Dante’s conclusion is that evil is just evil, which agrees with Christians definition of sin that no sin is greater than another.
Nonetheless, these two author contrast in the way evil is punished. Dante presents God’s as a powerful creature with the capacity to punish sin in the hell of fire. He persistently argues that committing sin is the violation of the will of God and eventually attracts punishment. In so doing, he builds a significant amount of tension to the reader when explicating the objective impersonality of God’s condemnation and the sympathy he feels for the soul that sins (Dante 223). Accordingly, a sin such as bribery is punished in the eighth circle of hell while murder is punished in the sixth hell, simply to demonstrate that God’s measure of sin is different from men. While Dante advocates that man should avoid committing evil due to the fear of the wrath of God, Golding, on the contrary, takes a different mitigation to evil. Golding argues that the best way to help man avoid doing evil is through civilization. When the boys moved to the Island, they had come from an orderly society; however, their arrival on the island makes them encounter hysterical and bloodthirsty hunters without an iota of civilization. The savages in the Island torture, maim and kill both humans and animals and the children cannot withstand the escapades. They devise ways of swimming across through the lagoons; though, they have lost their innocence by witnessing the extreme nature of innate evil and savagery. In chapter 3, Simon is portrayed as innocent sitting on the forest glade but later he becomes bloodthirsty and cruel for having interacted with evil men (Golding 54). What Golding simply means by these passages is that dogmatism and savagery are the main causes of evil; however, to relinquish man from sustained commitment of evil they do not need a god rather civilization, which contrasts Dante’s point of view.
Another contrast is that Dante uses classical mythology to explain man’s evil nature, while Golding extensively uses symbolism. Dante uses an ancient material such as mythological elements and classical literature to poise Christian view of morality and view of sin. On the contrary, Golding uses the beast as a symbol of savagery that lives in all humans, which triggers them to act evil. In addition, he also uses the Lord of the flies to signify the merciless and agonizing sow’s head to manifest the beast and the power within the beast that makes a man fall for that which is evil. Biblically, the Lord of flies can be viewed as the devil.
In conclusion, the book Lord of Flies and Inferno compare and contrast in many ways. In particular, the two compares in the entrenchment of man’s evil, nature and the usage of biblical contexts to explain evil. However, the contrast is in how a man can mitigate evil. Dante argues that only God can punish evil, while Golding supports civilization as the only way to salvage man from savagery.
References
Dante Alighieri. The Inferno. London: W. Rider, 1952. Print.
Golding, William. Lord of the Flies. London: Faber and Faber, 2012. Print.
